Back to living in North London. Doing two of my favourite things. Cooking and eating.

Tuesday, 24 March 2009

Am I in Spain, not quite ……

The other night we decided to pop along to rhe much published Barrafina. A trendy tapas bar in Soho, owned by the Hart brothers. There are no reservations taken, so it’s on a first come and first serve basis. The restaurant has about 20 stools all along the L shaped bar, from where you can watch fish being cooked on the flat top grill. Jamon being sliced off the leg in front of your very eyes. A marvellous sight for any carnivore. The place was buzzing which always adds an element of excitement to your meal. But you would expect this place to be jammin’, as it is the “IN” place to be seen at the moment in Soho. And packed it was. We only had to wait about 30 minutes, as a lot of people were pre-theatre dining. But with a clear crisp bottle of Albarino white wine, the wait flew by. As I said the wait flew by and in no time we were seated at the bar, and given a list of the days specials, which were all fish. The menu is easy to read and digest. Nothing really out of place here than you would find in an upmarket tapas bar in Spain. We opted for some Jamon Croquettes, what we thought were patatas bravas, but turned out to be fries with a mildly disappointed sauce (as we were with it.). A little but too runny small tortilla, and one of the specials, a beautiful piece of well cooked haddock. The croquettes were sublime, that combination of deep fried potato and ham rolled in breadcrumbs never seems to amaze me. We do a veggie option in the café with goats’ cheese and herbs. Eat far too many. The idea of doing French fries instead of cubes of potatoes is no short of stupid. This isn’t the golden arches you know, and if you say the sauce is brava then make it so. Not some tomato sauce with a little bit of paprika mixed in. The one portion tortilla is cooked in the same small frying pans we fry our eggs in, and is a great size for a tortilla. Unfortunately the inside was still a little bit too runny. Needed a little bit more salt, or have I become over salted working in a French (in style) café. The haddock was beautifully cooked on the flat top grill. Fantastic. Cooked all the way through, but still moist and the flavour was great. Hats off to the girl who cooked it. To finish off we shared a portion of chocolate tart. Nicely cooked pastry and good chocolate filling. For some reason since working at Café Boho, I have developed a sweet tooth, which never used to be there before. Maybe as I said it’s the amazing amount of salt I am now consuming, or maybe it’s the lack of food I am eating and I am getting my energy from the copious amounts of lemon tart I consume on a daily basis. All in all it was a good night, but would I return.... It's unlikely, unless I happen to walk past and there was space and I was a little peckish and fancied a little something with a glass of wine .....

1 comment:

Having just got back from Spain and already missing the tapas I was considering a meal at barrafina. It is the one serious tapas place in London I haven't bothered with (mainly as because I always catch it at busy times) and interested to see a moderate review for what I presume was a relatively pricey meal...